Hidden Friendships
by fezes-are-cool
Summary: Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy decided their friendship was best left hidden from the rest of the world. But for how much longer can they continue to do so?
1. Chapter 1

Hidden friendships

Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy were sitting down at the table closest to the back of Madam Puddifoot's coffee shop in Hogsmeade, hopefully out of sight to any Hogwarts students that might happen to pass by. Out of respect to the pride of their families they had decided to keep their unlikely friendship a secret and pray they were never caught together. The Malfoy name was already soaked in disgrace, but Lucius Malfoy still valued purity of blood very highly, and if his grandson was seen with a half-blood (not to mention a half-blood Weasley, the biggest blood traitors around) he would very likely sink into a cardiac arrest. Although Lucius' son Draco had disappointed him a lot, he put aside their differences when he was with his grandson, for now Scorpius was everything to the old man, and heir to the Malfoy fortune after Draco was cut off. So the last thing Scorpius wanted to do was cause an even bigger rift between his family by ruining the one thing they had left to say for themselves. He had agreed to be friends with Rose on 1 condition: she didn't tell anyone. Rose had agreed to this most willingly, as she did not think her father would be too overjoyed if she came home and announced a Malfoy was her best friend. So there they were hidden out of sight at the back of a small cramped coffee shop, discussing the latest news and pondering over odd bits of each other's homework. After Rose had read over Scorpius' divination dream chart for the fifth time, she looked up at him and was surprised to see him gazing at her, with a trace of what seemed to be something like desperation deep inside his warm, gray eyes. Rose was quite alarmed at this, and as it flashed across her face Scorpius' gaze faltered, and rather red and flustered, he looked down into his coffee. Rose had noticed he was acting differently around her lately, but whenever she asked him what was up he said he was fine and immediately changed the subject. Rose thought it might have been troubles at home, because that would explain his reluctance to talk about it. Scorpius never talked about his family, he decided that was a topic to leave out of conversations, because it only ever resulted in him losing friends or ruining perfectly good days. Problems with his family was a matter he liked to deal with himself, and not share with anyone else. But Rose could tell this was different. It looked as though he was burning to tell her something, but was trying to restrain himself at the same time. A feeling of mingled dread and hope washed away the surge of alarm currently flooding her body. I know what this is about, she thought. I thought we said we were gonna let this go! But, you do want it too, don't you! Said a little voice in her head. Maybe this could work out for the better.........

"No" she said aloud firmly, even surprising herself.

"No what?" asked Scorpius, looking rather puzzled.

"Um, nothing, I was just.....er.... never mind" said Rose, quite untruthfully. That was embarrassing, thought Rose, but to herself this time. Trust me, you don't want this.... But the voice was back again. Or do you? Said the little voice.

"Rose, are you OK?" asked Scorpius tentatively. " Because you seem kinda off this morning. Or afternoon, I should say! We really need to start making our way up to the castle now."

Rose looked around at the rest of the coffee shop. Apart from 2 tables the place was completely cleared, therefore it was safe to go. "yeah, we should go now. But I said I would meet Albus in the Three Broomsticks, so I suppose I will see you up at he castle then." Rose looked into Scorpius' warm gray eyes, gave him a swift kiss on the cheek, and then walked quickly from the shop, mumbling a barely audible goodbye as she went. Scorpius watched her as she walked towards the Three Broomsticks, secretly longing for the girl with the long hair flowing behind her as she walked without looking back, but he had no idea that at exactly the same point of time, the girl was already missing him.

***

Back in the gryffindor common room, Rose Weasley was sitting at a table close to the edge of the room, writing a very private letter. She decided enough was enough, and she would tell Scorpius that they could no longer ignore the hippogriff constantly sitting in the room with them. If only she could figure out a way to do that, writing the letter would be a much easier task than she was finding it. It was a task that needed taking care of, but she was really hoping that before she sent him the letter, he would say something first. She thought about all the different styles she could write this in, heartfelt, dismissive, truthful, painful, or light hearted happiness. She supposed she better write it nicely, because the little voice would not shut up until it got what it wanted, and what it wanted apparently was Scorpius. But even without the little voice, Rose would not say no if Scorpius asked her out. She had thought about asking her parents for advice. She cold imagine their responses clearly in her mind's eye.

Her mother would be very sympathetic, and sigh 'young love' every time she stopped talking. Her father, however, would do the opposite: Yell 'you can't like a Malfoy! We hate the Malfoy's! I thought i told you that!' she thought, with her best interests at heart, she would stay the hell away from her parents until the subject had somehow resolved itself. So, without any help, she found herself walking up to her dormitory with a scrap of parchment titled 'dear Scorpius'. But after that the parchment was empty. At this point in time she wished Albus was here, so they could talk, but he was in the hospital wing after being attacked by a furious devil's snare plant in greenhouse three. She would have to visit him in the morning, after she had completed her 3 foot long potions essay on antidotes. She would talk to Lily, but she was swamped by the enormous workload dumped on her class by Professor McGonagall, who was already aggravated before only one person in the class managed to successfully turn her hedgehog into a pincushion, so she gave them an essay to write on top of extra practice of the spells they had learned in class. Other than Lily, Albus and Scorpius, Rose did not really have any other friends who she could ask for advice. She turned back to the letter, scrumpled it into a ball and threw it into the bin across the room. The letter could wait, because right now all Rose needed was sleep.

*

She woke up the next morning considerably early, remembering that she did not fall asleep until past one o' clock in the morning. She got dressed, rushed down to the great hall, choked down some scrambled eggs and toast, then skidded into the hospital wing to visit Albus, and consequently sprayed egg all over him, as her mouth was still bulging with the large amount she had tried to force into it. He smiled up at her, wiping scrambled egg from his face as he did, and motioned to her to pass the cup of water on the table next to his bed. "Thank you" he said gratefully, then lay back into his pillow, keeping his eyes on Rose all the while, as though expecting her to explode any minute. "wow, this is the first time you have come to visit me this week and you have nothing to say? Nothing? Not even a tiny bit of news concerning anything?" Albus tried to coax it out of her, trying to hit her weaknesses, knowing full well that one of them was her love of talking. He would often say to her that she would talk half the time just to hear the sound of her own voice, as she obviously loved it so much. Rose tried not to look directly at Albus' eyes, because if she did she would tell him everything. She wanted to talk to someone about it, but she wasn't completely sure if Albus was the right person to talk to. Sure, he was her oldest and closest friend, he was even her cousin, but she didn't know if she could tell him. Plus, he might tell James, and then I'm screwed, thought Rose to herself. But if she didn't tell someone, she was sure she would explode....

"I think I am in love with Scorpius Malfoy and I think he loves me too" Rose said the statement as quickly as she possibly could with every ounce of dignity she could muster. She took a quick glance at Albus, who was now sitting bolt upright with a half-flabbergasted, half-bemused expression on his face. He looked as though he had been hit on the head with a blunt object. Rose quickly reverted her gaze back to her knees.

"Well" said Albus, after several minutes of stunned bemusement "that certainly explains a lot....."

***


	2. Chapter 2

For the following weeks, Rose avoided her two closest friends. Instead of facing up to the truth and admitting her feelings to Scorpius, she found herself a new clique and avoided both him and Albus. She did not really like (or know) her new friends, but at least they could not bother her about aspects of her life she would rather not discuss. See, after she had told Albus 'the big secret', which was now the name given to it by Albus, he had tried to convince her to tell Scorpius every time he saw her. Which was a lot, since they were best friends who took all the same classes, sat together at lunch and dinner, and even had their own claimed table in the common room. Albus thought it would do her good to confess all to Scorpius, because he swore to her that he thought that Scorpius felt the same way. And his answers to Rose's 'but what if he doesn't like me's were always the same, reassuring her that he does, and what does she have to lose_ apart _from their friendship, which would not happen anyway, because she has more to gain than she does to lose. So Rose avoided him. She thought it would be better for her if she forgot to acknowledge that he existed. Scorpius was a different matter. He was in Slytherin, and didn't really see much of Rose anyway, apart from the few classes that they shared, and when they met up in the grounds, library or Hogsmeade weekends. Rose could easily avoid him without making it look like she was avoiding him. Sometimes, with all the complicated strategies and plans she had to concoct over the past weeks to keep this secret hidden, she thought it might be easier just to tell Scorpius. Wow, thought Rose, after heading straight up to bed and pretending to be asleep for the fourth night in a row. Avoiding people is a hard business.

*

On Monday morning, Rose woke up bright and early. The Christmas holidays were fast approaching, and she could finally go home and escape from school. She had been falling behind in Transfiguration, and still could not turn the hedgehog into a pin cushion, which some fourth years had accomplished. She had been given a load of extra work to do by Professor McGonagall to catch up, and was struggling to keep up with all the other work she had been given by other teachers. Her OWLS were coming up, and she had a lot of work to do, as she was only getting an 'A' in Transfiguration. She was averaging at 'O' in every other subject, but for the fat lot of good that will do, Rose said, because she was given more work since her grades were the highest in the class.

"Well, at least you aren't getting 'T', because poor Annie Longbottom-Lovegood is, in Potions. I heard some of the teachers talking about it. They said she inherited her mother's eccentricity and her father's brains, and that is even though he is a teacher! Apparently he was really bad at potions when he went to Hogwarts........." James Potter was no great shakes at consoling people. Everyone else had just spread sympathy over her, and told her she would do fine, but James was no good at that. He was her cousin, on her father's side. His dad was the famous Harry Potter, the young boy who finally stopped the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, a.k.a. Tom Riddle. So you could say that she had a reputation to live up to, and had every right to stress about her OWLS. She was distracted so much she almost forgot about her other problem, until it all came rushing back.....

***

"Boys" Rose mumbled quietly to herself. "Why do all problems start with BOYS?" She quickly got dressed, and after 25 minutes of trying to put a hat on her foot stumbled down the dormitory stairs. There was not many people in the common room that morning, whether it was the fact that they had all gone home for the Christmas holidays, and she was stuck at school no thanks to her parents unexpected trip to see her grandparents in Australia, which she did not want to be a part of. She sat down in the huge threadbare armchair by the half extinguished fire, looking at the burned letters and pieces of homework casually strewn about the hearth. She smiled, reading the burned up remains of a wonderful love letter written to her classmate. The letter made her think of Scorpius, and how she was ignoring him, and neglecting him, and she knew he didn't deserve that.

She knew she needed a plan of action, she had to end this mess once and for all. She had to apologize to Albus first, then set the record straight with Scorpius. She had a day full of apologizing to do, and so much time to do it in, no thanks to her parents. Come on, she thought. Australia? Why couldn't they take me to Australia too? She finally decided she should apologize to Albus first, as he was her best friend. She had a slight idea where he was, but as she made her way over to the dormitory door, she turned back again, remembering their last meeting. It had ended in a blow-out argument, which Rose took full responsibility for. Rose felt a horrible feeling in her stomach. Probably guilt, thought Rose. You should be feeling guilt right now. She shook it off, and climbed down the stairs to the common room. She scanned the room twice, but not seeing Albus anywhere, she climbed out of the portrait hole and walked in the direction of the library.

The school was very empty, it seemed that everyone had gone home over Christmas, there was not one student from Gryffindor in the hallways. She walked along, occasionally stopping to wave to a familiar painting, or a familiar picture moved into someone else's portrait. That was one of the things Rose loved most about Hogwarts, the paintings and of people through the ages, talking and walking as if they were alive, just 2D. She approached the library doors, silently hoping Madam Pince would not notice her, as she had a book on the side table in her dormitory that was about two months overdue.

She pushed open the doors, and walked straight to the back, next to the restricted section. It was Albus' favorite place, sitting next to the doors that only very few of his classmates had ever passed through, getting to see the wonderfully gruesome books that had been classed as unsuitable for the shelves of the library, for whatever reason. She walked past the books, over to the seats against the railings, and there he was, sitting with his head glued to the pages of a Transfiguration textbook, no doubt looking for hints that will help him get his grades up. She sat down beside him, trying not to make any eye contact, however stupid it seemed. She saw him, in the corner of her eye, open his mouth as if to say something, then rapidly close it, probably hoping she had not seen him do it. Hmmm, she thought to herself. What to say to make this right?


End file.
